Portlanders seem happy to be a little different. Breaking from the status quo, whether for organized zombie walks or city wide pillow fights is a way of life in stumptown. A marching band with stilt-walkers, unicycles, fire eaters, puppets, flag twirlers, burlesque dancers, clown antics, and acrobatics or a donut shop with voodoo doll pastries pierced by pretzels and oozing raspberry filling are just a couple of the eclectic things you can find.

Finding ways to live life a little better is another detour from the ordinary. In Portland, you can attend a solar power convention in a convention center powered by solar. A Southeast neighborhood worked together create a solar thermal heater that heats all the homes on the block. It is part of the eco-block concept of sustainable urban planning. A gray water recycling bill is in the legislature and the city is adopting a community energy plan in Portland's North Pearl District.

You can drink a beer that is solar brewed (and it is good microbrew, I'll add). There is even a solar powered public toilet or the solar loo as it is referred to locally. The green creds continue at a gym where your spin class or treadmill miles generate electricity. The largest solar manufacturing plant in North America is in the Portland suburb of Hillsboro. You can see solar projects all over the city here.

Portland has plans to get CO2 emissions down to 1990 levels by the end of 2010. One milestone along that path was recently met. The city now has in excess of 5 megawatts of renewable energy scattered throughout the city.

This was not done by a new wind farm or giant solar power plant. Instead this is the collective capacity of 370 customers that have PV or small scale wind turbines. It’s enough to power more than 450 homes and offset 3,325 tons of carbon annually.

Solar installations have jumped in recent years and surplus energy is exported to the electrical grid, adding clean, renewable energy into the mix for everyone on the grid.

Let's hope that other cities can learn to be a little more weird and not be afraid to try something new.